Finnish recordist Pyry Survo has created a unique sound effects collection, capturing a wealth of hard-to-access recordings from roller coasters and other amusement rides, as well as amusement park ambiences. It was a huge undertaking, and below, he shares the story behind the making of this impressive collection:

Pyry Survo (PS): Hi Asbjoern, thanks for having me. I am the founder of Effect Sense, a brand new sound effects library manufacturer from Finland. I record, create, edit, and publish high-quality sound effects libraries for creative professionals in game, film and new media industry. My goal is to create sound collections that in itself could inspire others to create new, valuable content to their products. My head is full of ideas for new sfx libraries, and I’m really excited to be a part of the indie sound effects community.

My history with sound effects began in 2008 when I got my first handheld recorder, Zoom H2. After seeing Ben Burtt’s interview in Pixar’s WALL-E DVD extras, I was totally fascinated by the world of sound design, and decided to become a sound designer. I have been recording all kinds of sounds ever since. Now I have worked in films, games, television, and soundscape research, gaining a wide experience in the field of audio.

In addition to sound design, I have also composed music for one feature length film and several short films, and worked as a guest lecturer teaching sound design and field recording.

The new libraries are about amusement park sounds. Divided into two parts, ‘Roller Coaster Sound Builder’ and ‘Amusement Rides & Ambiences’ libraries are unique releases in the indie sfx community. They include multi-microphone recordings of amusement rides and roller coasters, recorded partly in an amusement park that was closed to the public.

This allowed us to place microphones to the optimal places and capture clean recordings without people or background music. Of course, we recorded also classic roller coaster screams and amusement park ambiences when the park was open. A roller coaster sound library wouldn’t be complete without good screams!

Recording roller coaster screams

What are some of the highlights of your new libraries?

PS: There is a lot of great source material for sound design included. Even though the collection has a lot of different roller coaster screams, making it perfect for amusement park advertising, I’m the most excited about the creative sound design possibilities with the hard to access recordings of the motors, mechanics and onboard sounds.

The ‘Roller Coaster Sound Effects Builder’ library includes five different roller coasters. In the library I call them:

All of them sound different. Multiple pass-by recordings are included for every roller coaster. In addition, three of them were recorded onboard. My main goal was to create a versatile library which is useful in real life sound editing and sound design. That’s why I captured clean pass-bys without people or background music for every roller coaster. The biggest ones, where people tend to scream, (Big Steel Coaster and Motorbike Coaster) include also a lot of takes with screaming.

Roller Coasters included – gallery:

The package also includes ‘Sound Builder’ Pro Tools project files for the Big and Small Steel Coasters. With these project files, you can easily edit your own roller coaster sounds with the perfectly synced multi-microphone tracks.

The ‘Amusement Rides & Ambiences’ library includes eight amusement rides and 21 minutes of amusement park ambiences in LCR. The included rides are Disk’O Coaster, Log Flume, Magic Bikes, Piggy Train, Pirate Ship, Supernova, Take Off, and Truck Convoy, so there is a lot of variety. Most of the rides were recorded clean without people or background music, which enables great sound design possibilities.

Amusement Rides included – gallery:

PDF spec sheets are included for inspiration. They include photos from the recording sessions, extra details about the rides, and microphone position maps for every roller coaster.

Microphone position map for Big Steel Coaster

How did you gain access to recording those sounds – and what was your planning process?

PS: Roller coasters were maybe the most challenging sound sources I have ever recorded. A lot of planning was needed, indeed. There is an amusement park (Särkänniemi amusement park) in my hometown. I had visited the park many times, and recording the rides had been in my mind for a long time.

I was lucky to have friends working in the park staff. I think it would have been really difficult to gain access to the park without personally knowing anyone from the staff. I already knew a thing or two about how the park works before I introduced them my idea to record high-quality roller coaster sounds. When I did, they were excited about it.

Fortunately, the mechanics were really relaxed about it and even let the rides run for some extra rounds just for me

First, I had a scouting day in the park. I rode every amusement ride and roller coaster listening to them carefully (well, I didn’t ride the kiddie rides, some of them have maximum height limit). I took photos and notes. I made a plan about which rides were essential to record and where the microphones could be placed. I recorded some reference material with my Sony PCM-D100.

After scouting I made an equipment plan of what kind of microphone setups were the needed, and what other accessories would be useful to have. The Tonebenders podcast on recording roller coasters by René Coronado included some extremely helpful information for this.

Every morning, before the park is opened to visitors, each ride and coaster is tested for maintenance and safety. This was my main opportunity to capture the sounds without any background music or people. Of course, I couldn’t interrupt the normal maintenance schedule with my recordings. Fortunately, the mechanics were really relaxed about it and even let the rides run for some extra rounds just for me.

Then, when the park opened, I stayed there to record the natural screaming and park ambiences. The sounds of these libraries were recorded during three days in the park.

Three versions available:

There are three different versions available: One dedicated to roller coaster sounds, another one with 8 different amusement rides and ambiences – and a bundle, featuring both libraries. Here they are:

Amusement Rides & Ambiences is a unique collection of hard to access amusement park sound effects. Package includes high-quality multichannel recordings captured with a full access to the amusement rides – and a total of 8 rides are included!

Some recordings were made in an amusement park that was closed from the public. This enabled us to capture the sound effects as clean as possible without background music or people.

Ambience recordings are authentic amusement park ambiences with people and amusement rides. They include children and adults, cheering and screaming, chatter in different languages, amusement rides loading and operating, and more. All sounds were recorded in Särkänniemi amusement park, Tampere, Finland. Also available in the special Complete Amusement Park Sound Bundle.

Roller coaster pass by sounds were recorded without background noise in an amusement park that was closed to the public. A great amount of natural screams with different intensities is also included, recorded during a regular summer day in the amusement park.

This collection provides unique, hard-to-access source material in high-quality, with a large amount of takes for creative sound design. We worked hard to capture as much useful material as we could when we had full access to the rides. All sounds were recorded in Särkänniemi amusement park, Tampere, Finland. Also available in the special Complete Amusement Park Sound Bundle.

PS: To get as much audio material as possible with every roller coaster launch, we used multiple microphone setups. We placed the microphones in different spots of the track to get fast pass-bys, loops, slow pass-bys etc., all with just a single take.

The main setup was LCR (Left, Center, Right) + a tracking mono shotgun, including Sennheiser MKH60s for left and right, Oktava Mk 012-01 cardioid for center and Sennheiser MKH416 for handheld. The audio was recorded to Sound Devices 744t (using MM-1s for extra preamps). In addition to that, we used a quadrophonic (4.0) microphone setup, ORTF stereo pair with Audio Technica AT4053Bs and a handheld Sony PCM-D100. The 4.0 setup was built with a Zoom XYH6 capsule and a Superlux S502 ORTF mic. This setup was placed so that the big steel coaster rumbled right above it. It sounds really good listened in a surround environment, just like LCR recordings do. Also, 4.0 gives you two different stereo pass-bys in one take.

Because you cannot check the meters when the recorder is tied to a roller coaster car moving at 75 km/h on the track, getting good gain levels took a test drive or two

Three of the roller coasters were also recorded onboard. Zoom H6 was selected as the onboard recorder because of its small size, light weight, and multiple XLR inputs. The microphones used onboard were a Sennheiser MKH50, a Shure SM57, two Crown GLM-100 lavaliers, and Ehrlund EAP contact microphones. The recorder and microphones were tied into the car with zip ties and tape. Because you cannot check the meters when the recorder is tied to a roller coaster car moving at 75 km/h on the track, getting good gain levels took a test drive or two. Eventually the onboard recordings came out very good as well.

Of course I couldn’t handle this many microphone sets alone. I had my friend Jousia Lappi, a field recordist and media producer from North Arrow Films assisting me during the multi-setup recording sessions.

What sort of post production or processing did you do on the recordings?

PS: Because of multiple recorded tracks and many different sound sources, a well-planned post production was a crucial part of the creation of this library. First, I batch-named every track according to the ride/coaster and the microphone used and normalized them to -3 dBFS. Then I went through every track in iZotope RX Audio Editor to remove any clicks or other unwanted noises. I wanted to keep the files as unprocessed as possible, so I didn’t use any compression for example. For some tracks, a little EQ’ing was applied.

Because of multiple recorded tracks and many different sound sources, a well-planned post production was a crucial part of the creation of this library

I also wanted to save people’s time so I did the background de-noising for them. Even though the source material wasn’t too noisy to start with, I still wanted to provide the cleanest roller coaster recordings there is. I admit, I’m a bit obsessed with removing any noise floor from my sound fx recordings, even if it wouldn’t be audible unless you add +30 dB gain. For some tracks, both original and RX versions are included in the download. This way the end user can choose the track that fits their project the best.

Next, I opened the tracks in Pro Tools to edit them. The first task was to sync all the multi-recorder takes. I used track grouping features to edit all the tracks from the same take at once. I deleted the unnecessary parts, added fades, and named the clips with more accurate names.

I think having good filenames is one of the most important aspects of a sound library. I always try to write informative and searchable filenames in a way that the sounds are easy to find and use in any DAW or video editing software, without the need for extra metadata or sound management software. For example, I named every scream according to who is screaming and by the intensity of the scream. This way one can search for “woman scream terrified” to find all the sounds where the focus is in a terrified, screaming woman, or “children scream excited” if a sound of excitedly screaming children is desired.

As everyone will not use LCR tracks, I did stereo downmixes from them as well for more convenient use in stereo sound editing. Both LCR and downmixed tracks are included in the package, of course.

Finally, I completed the metadata with additional info in Excel, imported it to Soundminer and embedded it to the files.

Any surprises along the way?

PS: Yes, there were some. I was surprised by how huge the kiddie ride Truck Convoy sounded when recorded in close perspective. You might think a kiddie ride wouldn’t sound very big. However, this one did.

I was surprised by how huge the kiddie ride Truck Convoy sounded when recorded in close perspective

Don’t judge the sound of amusement rides by their appearance or name. The Piggy Train surprised me as well, sounding like a weird little train. We even recorded it onboard!

Recording Piggy Train

Recording pass-by screams for Disk’O Coaster was a great moment. During a single ride cycle, the vehicle goes back and forth the track multiple times.

When people saw my microphones they started giving their best screams, louder every time they passed by the microphones

When people saw my microphones they started giving their best screams, louder every time they passed by the microphones. This was unexpected, and resulted in some great recordings! These screams are included in the ‘Amusement Rides & Ambiences’ collection.

Recording Disk’O Coaster pass-by screams

In some occasions, I was amazed how RX de-noising/de-humming gave the recording totally new sound design possibilites. For example, the Pirate Ship had a constant buzzing hum going on during the ride cycle. However, sprinkling a little RX magic made the hum completely disappear. Now only a clean recording of the unique screeching sound of the acceleration/braking tires was present. Both versions are included in the amusement rides collection.

Do you have any favorite sounds in the library?

PS: Yes, even though the whole collection is full of hard-to-access recordings, some are really special. When we recorded the Impulse Coaster (Half Pipe), we were able to place the microphones below the station platform, pointing directly to the launch motors. This was a restricted area, accessible only by the staff. The sound of the motors was really aggressive and powerful. I can imagine how sound designers can use it for the engine sounds of futuristic vehicles or space ships, for example. Some good pneumatic air release hisses were recorded there, too.

The Big Steel Coaster pass-bys are massive when listening the LCR tracks in a surround environment. I love it how it sounds like the coaster is really passing by the front speakers

Also, the Big Steel Coaster pass-bys are massive when listening the LCR tracks in a surround environment. I love it how it sounds like the coaster is really passing by the front speakers. Many great screams are also included.

One of my favourites is “MotoCoaster 03 Terrified woman scream at launch”, where a woman’s scream suddenly jumps up an octave during the launch acceleration.

Any clues on what’s coming next from you?

PS: I have multiple libraries recorded already, waiting for editing and publishing. Next, there will be something related to guns, and something recorded in freezing cold Finnish winter. Can’t wait to share them with you!

In a remote research lab in the north-east of England, scientists have been secretly carrying out experiments on a number of human test subjects. There is no record of what these experiments entailed or who authorized them, but one thing we do know is that something went horrendously wrong and transformed these once-innocent, everyday people into something else entirely… Something inherently evil.

Herein lies an audio documentation of these wretched beasts as they run amok with only one thing on their minds… To feed and to destroy.

Featuring sounds taken from lo-fi instrumental recordings, harsh noise experiments and granular synthesis explorations, Atmosfear is a gritty soundscape collection geared towards the horror genre. With a distinctly unpolished production style to bring a rough edge to your scenario, these sounds can be used to invoke feelings of suspense, dread, tension, fear and doom into your characters and environments.

What does an industrial scale torture chamber in an abandoned asylum sound like? What about a high-voltage electrical possession? Find the answer to these questions and more with Atmosfear. Enter if you dare.

Swordfighter is a robust package with sharp sounding swords, heaps of variations and all the extras you need to make a fight come alive. Build unique sword swings with various hits, swooshes, schings, different fighter vocals and impacts on various surfaces. All up there are 137 sword sounds, 93 surface impact sounds, 15 knife throwing sounds, 48 swooshes and 180 fighter vocals.

This version includes two sub-folders: one optimised for a film & TV workflow and the other optimised for video games workflow. Plus a few bonus sounds of a charging army.

Get all sorts of ambisonic debris recordings in this release from Spheric Collection – perfect for earthquakes, landslides, explosions and beyond. Debris is the material you will need for a house and gallery collapsing. From very small stone and dust to large rocks, this collection is a good set of mineral sounds – covering everything from impacts, continuous falling debris, rocks poured from various heights, light and heavy falling debris sounds, a number of falling rock sounds, to rocky explosions and blasts, glass sounds and more. Always immersive all sounds are ambisonic recordings.

About Ambisonics:

This is an Ambisonics sound effects library - and by using the free SoundField SurroundZone 2 plugin you can convert the B-format files into your preferred format (stereo, 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, 6.1, 7.0 or 7.1 surround). Note: The library also contains ready-made stereo mixdowns for your convenience.

If you are a musician who wants to define the building blocks of an intense horror track or maybe you are a sound designer who needs to create a musical moment in a scene from a sound design perspective, this library can help you to achieve those things.

Metals, vinyl noises, voices, ukuleles, flutes, guitars and clocks were used to create this intense pack of 164 loops and 44 Fx.

Check the main demo!! It was created very quickly using only the sounds of the pack with NO ADDED EFFECTS, only mixing the levels of the sounds and shows you the intensity of what you can create with this library!!

Vintage Film Tech Effects features Slate claps, Beeps, Bloops, Film leader tone, Static, 2 Pops, digital dropouts, record player noise and much more. We’ve collected these vintage sounds from old Hollywood dailies reels, and film stock. 206 tracks that recreate the sound of the lost art of classic Film, TV and radio production.

Looking for authentic ambient sounds of Japanese transportation? Look no further! Field recordist and composer Ryan Ayers travelled to Japan in April of 2019 and captured this wonderful collection. His journey took him from Osaka to Tokyo to Fukuoka and all points in-between. Travel aboard the trains of the JR, the famous Shinkansen, the Hanyu Ferry and more! Explore the train platforms and station terminals of Osaka. Get lost in the Kansai International Airport. There is a subway noodle shop as well as specialty food markets. Authentic walla and natural activity give this collection the ear candy necessary to be an integral part of great soundscapes.

This is a purely recorded sound pack. Nothing is synthetic or layered here. What you hear is exactly what was captured on location. We edited and mastered the files to bring out the best parts of the recordings. Most of the recordings have been ready-made into loops for ease of use. As always, we have embedded the files with detailed metadata for easy database searches.

Whether you’re working on an exciting Pirates of the Caribbean style video game or a relaxing sea-faring romance, the hours of exceptional background loops and additional cutting edge ship sounds contained within this sound pack will set your project on a course to excellence!

EXPLORE AN ENTIRE SHIP

Whether your adventure takes place in the MAIN DECK, CABIN, BELOW DECK, atop the CROWS NEST, in a MEDIEVAL PORT, or on a DISTANT SHIP in the HIGH SEAS we’ve got you covered! Each ambience contains MULTIPLE VARIATIONS, ALL WEATHER CONDITIONS, and MULTIPLE INTENSITIES to cover each and every part of the ship, on the rough and calm seas, this sound effects library is perfect for every situation you need.

A JOURNEY TO REMEMBER

Our expert team of sound designers have meticulously crafted each ambience into CONTINUOUS, NON-REPETITIVE, DRAG AND DROP-READY LOOPS that will serve as perfect background audio for your game, film, animation, live event, or even as relaxing background audio! We have even included FULL and SIMPLIFIED MIXES, ISOLATED WEATHER, OCEAN and WOOD CRACKING versions, SHORT and LONG non-repetitive variants, and numerous other options for your convenience!

TREASURE APLENTY

With FREE UPDATES, FOREVER! and FREE BONUS AMBIENCES: MEDIEVAL PORT and isolated, SEA, SAILS and FLAG FLAPPING, Ship’s BELL RINGING, WEATHER and WOOD CRACKING SOUNDS, all supplied in industry standard Hi-Rez WAV and Hi-Quality MP3 formats, there’s no better time to set sail on the high seas with this ONE OF A KIND sound pack!

So what are you waiting for? Take command of this UNIQUE library and begin your journey on the high seas today!

KEY FEATURES:

Huge variety of Old Wooden Ship Interior and Exterior Ambiences, All Weather Conditions and Additional Useful BONUS Sound Effects for every scene or situation.